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Spectacular reliquary with relics of the True Cross of Jesus Christ in case

Spectacular and important 18th-century large cruciform silver reliquary theca decorated with intricate floral filigree ornamentation housing unusually large particle relics of the wood from the True Cross of Jesus Christ. The precious relics are displayed in a cruciform shape and identified in Latin as D.N.J.C. (Our Lord Jesus [Christ]).  On the back, the reliquary is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint with a coat of arms of an unidentified Roman Catholic Bishop. The reliquary is accompanied by a silk-lined case of gilt-tooled Florentine leather. 

The True Cross is the name for physical remnants that, by the Church tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, traveled to the Holy Land in 326–28, where she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus and of two thieves, St. Dismas and Gestas, executed with him, and a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross. Fragments of the Cross were broken up, and the pieces were widely distributed; in 348, in one of his Catecheses, Cyril of Jerusalem remarked that the "whole earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ." Most of the very small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from Constantinople after the city was captured and sacked in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. They were carved up by the present bishops and divided with other very precious relics among the knights, who, after their return to the homeland, donated them to churches and monasteries.

Additional Info

  • ID#: 278-RSCR-95
  • Size: 180 x 115 mm (7 x 5 inches)
  • Age: ca. 19th century
  • Origin: Italy
  • Materials: Reliquary: silver, silk, Spanish wax; Case: leather, silk, paper
  • Price: SOLD!
  • Silver
  • Orthodox Cross
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